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Shaver Outdoor Wood Furnace Second Year in Use Review 2009/2010 Winter
Shaver Outdoor Wood Furnace was installed in October of 2008.
So far into the second year the furnace has done very good job and with propane prices around the $4 level we should be at break even with the cost of the furnace.
Amount of Wood being Burned in a Season. I would say around 8 to 10 cords. Filling around 2 to 3 times daily. Most wood consumption is with temps below 20 degrees but if you heat with electric or any other fuel you would be using more fuel too.
Neighbor switched to burning wood in a small indoor woodstove because he said it would have cost $6000 to heat his house with propane this winter. Another buddy who is using a heat pump recently paid a $700 monthly electric bill to Delmarva Power.
One of the key things with these stoves is getting the wood for free. We have not paid for wood so far. Look for places on Craigslist for trees that have falling etc., neighbors, church camps to name a few
Notes On Operation and Broken Parts on the Shaver Outdoor Wood Furnace
First Year we did not have the lip on the back of the furnace sealed off (lid for the copper coil). This resulted in the insulation getting soaked from the steam and also probably burned more wood then we needed. Due to heat escaping.
The only problems in year one of using the Shaver Outdoor Wood Furnace were as follows
Plastic Compression Fitting for the Domestic Hot Water on the Back of the furnace Busted. Using plastic fitting with high water temps and being exposed to outside temps did not seem like a good idea. Of course are fitting busted while on vacation and resulted in a service call. Shaver also sent a little thermostat that went on the back of the furance to regulate the water jacket temperature, that sucked and busted the second day of use. Replaced with an Aquastat.
Also not having the lid sealed probably resulted in the Circulating Fan busting in December 2009. The Dayton Circulating Fans operate on a very small motor and easily found on sites like EBAY for around $50 to $65. So watch out if you are paying over that. If the motor does blow on the fan probably not worthwhile to rebuild when the hole part is so cheap.
Happily when the fan did go out and temps were only reaching around 20 degrees for the high the furnace did manage to heat the house without the fan running. It was very windy durning the week and that may have helped. But that was a big surprise and great news not needing to use the propane while waiting a week to get the fan.
Also Very Good Idea to Have Spare Parts Incase They Do Break in the Middle of Winter.
Circulaing Fan around $60 Aquastats around $50 we use 2 one on the back of furnace outside (set at 160 degr) and the other on the copper pipe leaving the water to air heat exchanger (set at 110 degr.) when exit pipe comes up to temp. aquastat tells the home furance fan to come on and blow heat through duct work...
Also another Good Idea is to have Shutoff Valves on Everything. The Ball Valves are a little more costly but seem to be the best.
If anyone else has had any problems or good advice on the Shaver Outoor Wood Furnace please email me and I will post them.